These have included in handling cases of clerical abuse, [10] [11] greater involvement of lay people within church governance, [12] results of public consultations [13] [14],the treatment of priests. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) placed restrictions on the association's founder, Fr Tony Flannery who is a member of the Redemptorist Congregation. Their objective was not, as the then Cardinal Ratzinger said in 1985, ‘to change the faith, but to represent it in a more effective way’.

If they are so worried about the dearth of clergy why are they not using their pulpit to speak about how men can become deacons? Jan 24 – Monday of Week 4 1st Reading: 2 Samuel 15:13-14, 30; 16:5-13 While fleeing Jerusalem during Absalom’s revolt, David is cursed and accepts it as the will of God A messenger came to David, saying, “The hearts of the Israelites have gone after Absalom. There is also the question of the working and living conditions of the majority of priests who are ageing and becoming fragile and vulnerable, while being expected to carry increasing workloads,” a report on the meeting said.How exactly are the merely baptised to ‘consecrate the world’ if they cannot see themselves as ‘consecrated’ to that task unless they opt for celibacy? The Association of Catholic Priests is trying to organise an "Assembly of the Irish Church" in a Dublin venue on 1 May of next year, and to recruit sympathetic laity and clerics to take part.

And, below that, I would like to share again my brief report on Ecumenism and the Synodal Church from our most recent Edinburgh Newman meeting led by Mgr. The Catholic Church, under severe pressure due to a shortage of priests, was dealt a further blow last year when it lost two of its best-loved characters, Fr Kevin McNamara and Fr Con Cronin. Deacons can baptise, preside over funerals, preach at the pulpit, I think they can anoint the sick but not give the Last Rites (happy to be corrected there).If a petition were signed, one would then have a reliable list of priests to avoid -- and the new nuncio would have a list of priests to not take seriously, and certainly not to be considered for vacant dioceses.

TheEucharistic Congress was seen as something that the Association had no strong opinion on, and that maybe nothing should be said. Some of those involved in his “withdrawal” have been “shown up to be a lot less white than they presented themselves, and some of them have become more oppositional, even ‘heretical’, than I or my censored colleagues in the Irish Church ever were”. Since that time, it has emerged that three other priests have also been silenced: Marist priest Fr Seán Fagan, Capuchin priest Fr Owen O'Sullivan and Passionist priest Fr Brian D'Arcy. It was also suggested that, while the ACP “has won recognition as an alternative voice to the official church leadership and it has created a platform for real debate on reform issues”, this should be expanded.In those dioceses it is about filling gaps and getting older men to look after more masses and placing bigger expectations on them. ACP members in Athlone were told that 547 priests of the 2,100 working priests in the Irish Church currently are aged between 61 and 75 and nearly 300 or 15 per cent of working priests are aged 75 or over.